


sweet dreams

by Soulykins



Series: old dog, old tricks [7]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Five has nightmares, Gen, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Good Brother Five, Good Brother Klaus Hargreeves, Insomnia, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus has nightmares, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 09:11:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18163292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulykins/pseuds/Soulykins
Summary: Klaus realizes that there are night Five comes into each of his siblings rooms and checks their pulses while they sleep, and comes to a realization about how exactly Luther knew they'd all died fighting the apocalypse in that very first future.He isn't quite sure what to do with this information until he ends up waking up from his own nightmare while Five is actually in the room. They end up awkwardly comforting one another the best way they know how, and Ben is very proud of them both. Nightmares can really suck, but having someone there for you can really help.





	sweet dreams

Klaus could not sleep for the life of him. Nightmares of gaunt and caved in faces screaming his name and reaching for him with fingers curled into claws kept his eyes peeled on the ceiling. It wasn’t an unusual thing to happen, especially since he really had been doing his best to get clean.

He touched the tattoo on his shoulder and closed his eyes, wishing that he was with Dave, that he could have Dave’s arms wrapped around him and just dance like they had back in Vietnam.

But at least he had Ben for these long and lonely nights.

“I can’t just go back to sleep, Ben.” Klaus told his brother, exhaustion leaking into his voice, “It’s not that easy.”

“I know.” Ben’s face was equally sad, “But I’m here for you, right? If any other ghosts show up I’ll kick them to the curb for you. I’ll _protect_ you, Klaus. You know that, right?”

Klaus was oddly touched. It wasn’t that the rest of the family didn’t reach out to him now that they’d all agreed to actually make an attempt to mend their bonds, but open displays of affection had never been their strong suit. 

“I know, buddy.” Klaus said warmly, making patting motions towards where Ben was seated, “I know this and I love you. It’s nothing against you, it’s just my stupid brain, y’know? Misfiring of neurons and shit or something.”

They both knew it was more than that. Klaus’s time shoved into the mausoleum had traumatized him, and these days it wasn’t like he didn’t have traumas to choose from. Multiple choice nightmares! There were mausoleum nightmares, torture nightmares, Vietnam in general nightmares, Dave dying nightmares, and those were only from real life events! It’s not like his brain never saw fit to hit a ‘combo’ button where he’d see his family and Dave bleeding out in front of him while he was being tied to a chair and tortured. Or other fun nightmares!

Honestly it was a minor miracle Klaus got sleep at all without drugging himself into a coma.

Ben sighed. He knew it too, as much as he disliked being unable to help his brother with this fight. “Just roll over and close your eyes. I read somewhere that even just relaxing and laying down has benefits even if you aren’t actually asleep. I’ll be here if you need me.”

“I think that was an episode of Mythbusters,” Klaus muttered, but turned over on his side to grudgingly close his eyes and make an attempt.

It had probably been about ten minutes and Klaus was about to open his eyes and sit up and just surf Wikipedia or something, but instead he froze still ‘sleeping’ as he heard his door open. He hesitation gave Ben enough time to snap, “Wait! Keep pretending to be asleep for a second.”

Klaus kept his eyes firmly shut but attempted to telepathically demand more information from the ghostly lookout.

“It’s Five.” Ben whispered, making Klaus actually wonder if his attempts succeeded. Klaus could hear uncertain footsteps closer to his bed, “What’s he doing - ?”

The feeling of ice cold fingers on his neck almost had Klaus flinching away, but some power kept him still with even breathing. Five wouldn’t come into his room to snap his neck or anything, right? Certainly not. Plus, Ben would totally warn him if Five had his 'murder face' on. Instead, the icy fingers pressed down near where his jaw and neck met.

Klaus could feel his pulse beating against his brother’s fingers.

A soft, shaky sigh and then the fingers withdrew and the feet tiptoed back out of the room, the door gently clicking shut in the same heartbeat that Klaus was sitting up and staring at the now closed door in almost confusion. He looked at Ben, but the deceased sibling looked just as puzzled as Klaus did.

“I’ll check it out,” Ben whispered, “Hold tight. I’ll be right back.”

With that warning, Ben slipped through a wall to presumably trail their babiest brother and see if he went back to his own room or something. Klaus brought his own hand to press against his neck where his skin still tingled, counting his own heartbeats against his fingers until Ben slipped back through the wall. He looked concerned.

“He’s going to everyone’s rooms and doing the same thing,” Ben whispered, as though there was anyone that wasn’t Klaus who could even hear him, “He didn’t stay long in any one room, and then he went back to his own I think. I don’t think he went back to sleep though, he left the light on.”

“Maybe he doesn’t like the dark,” Klaus whispered back, already knowing that probably wasn’t the issue here.

Ben shook his head, “I don’t know what he was doing though.”

Oh. Klaus forgot sometimes that Ben was dead. He was so very _real_ to Klaus that it was easy to forget that there were some things Ben was simply incapable of doing anymore.

“He was checking our pulses.” Klaus informed his brother. The real question though was - why had Five felt the need to check?

Klaus turned slowly to look at Ben, face pale and hoping he was wrong about the conclusion his mind had jumped to, “Hey Ben? Do you remember when Luther dropped the bomb on us that we all died in the first apocalypse?”

Ben nodded cautiously and Klaus continued, “How did he know that? How did he know we died trying to stop it?”

“Everyone died in the apocalypse.” Ben pointed out, “It’s a pretty logical conclusion that you died as well. You’re kind of part of ‘everyone’ if you haven’t noticed.”

“But he knew we died _fighting the apocalypse._ And Five - he said he looked for clues on what kicked it off that first time right? He figured out what day it happened and he had that - that eye, right?”

Ben was silent, turning his head to look at the door with concern lining his face.

“He recognized us. When he came back.” Klaus realized suddenly, and it was so _obvious_ now that he thought about it. “The last time he saw us, we were thirteen. We were seventeen years too old to be his siblings. He _shouldn’t_ have recognized us.”

“But he did.” Ben’s voice was barely a whisper.

“The world ended eight days from when he arrived. We would have looked the same.” _Our bodies would have looked the same,_ is what Klaus didn’t say. “Oh man, I want to go and wrap him up in bubble wrap and never let him out of my sight. Fuck.”

“He’d probably stab you,” Ben joked, but it fell flat with the general depressed atmosphere.

Klaus flopped back on his bed, starfished out. “What do we do with the realization that our little brother definitely saw us dead and now checks on us at night?”

Ben shrugged.

“Yeah,” Klaus sighed, “That’s what I thought.”

 

 

It happened again. And again. Nights that Klaus wasn’t awake, where Ben would grimly inform him in the morning that Five hadn’t slept the past night and had instead patrolled their rooms watching them breathe. In any other situation, Klaus would make a joke about how creepy it was that Five watched them sleep, but now he knew it was to watch them _breathe_ it wasn’t funny anymore.

Nights that Klaus was awake, where he pretended to be asleep and let his brother press fingers to his skin. Sometimes Five was done in under a minute, quickly checking and then exiting the room to check the others. Other times Five stood there, fingers trembling and shaking against Klaus’s skin as he listened to his brother’s heart continue to beat until he could finally tear himself away.

He kind of wanted to let Five know that he knew, that he was aware of the nightly visits or sit up and comfort his brother - assure him that he was _alive_. But he was terrified of scaring Five off. Of making it so that Five didn’t make the nightly visits, and instead sat up in his room afraid and alone with memories of familiar dead faces in his mind’s eye.

Klaus knew what it was like to be haunted by the dead, after all. He wanted Five to be able to wring whatever comfort he could out of whatever he was comfortable with.

Ben fretted about it, leaving Klaus’s side in the night to check up on Five. At least Klaus’s previous gift of the stuffed cat pillow dubbed ‘My Boy’ seemed to be helping somewhat. Or at least, Five often traveled between the rooms with the soft toy tucked under an arm, hugging it to himself and drying his eyes on the fabric face.

It was interesting to have a spy - Ben hadn’t ever bothered leaving his side to check up on his siblings before. But it made sense. Ben and Five had been pretty close before Five had vanished, Ben had cried for hours after Reginald had informed them all severely that Five wasn’t coming home.

Good old Dad, breaking the news gently.

Allison and Luther had always been close, the golden duo who wanted Dad’s attention. The most obedient and willing to go along with their training. Diego had spent more time with their Mom than any of the other siblings combined, holding onto her apron and helping her with dinner whenever he had a spare moment. But four-five-six? Their powers were more - nebulous. Needed more testing. Crueler testing. 

Five and Vanya had been close in that Five tended to be protective of her and more willing to tolerate her presence than the rest of them combined, but when it came to teaming up against the nightmare that was Dad’s idea of training and comforting one another - well, it had been them. The kids whose powers had negative effects on their health.

Five had hated being seen as weak, but he tolerated it more from him and Ben since he’d seen Klaus shaking out of his own skin and clawing at his arms after coming out of the mausoleum. Tolerated it more when he’d seen Ben curl up on himself and cry while covered in blood, unable to stand because his knees were too weak after holding up the weight of whatever eldritch monster had had summoned that day.

Quid pro quo. He got to see them like that and help half-carry them back to their bed, tossing blankets and pillows at them with almost enough severity to cover up the fact that he’d cared. And they got to see Five when he couldn’t even walk after throwing up everything that could possibly be in his stomach, forced to chain jump until he genuinely couldn’t move let alone jump.

It was easier to be a mess in front of someone who had already been a mess in front of you.

And so maybe that was why things came to a head the way they did, with Klaus having a nightmare of cold corpse fingers reaching to grab at his wrists and ankles, dragging him through the door of the mausoleum where he knew there would be more waiting for him to claw and bite and consume him. The ghosts dragging him had the faces of his siblings, twisted and bloody and accusing him of not saving them, of giving up on them. 

So that’s why he woke up flailing, a scream on his lips and tears on his face, and his hand hit something decidedly _solid_.

He froze. Whoever he’d hit froze. Klaus could hear Ben’s alarmed intake of breath from nearby. Klaus turned his face towards the intruder with wide, frightened eyes, only to set them on another individual with wide, frightened eyes.

Five was standing there, looking terribly young in what could only be Luther’s shirt (it hung on him like a dress) and some of the fuzzy pajama pants Klaus had tossed into the cart when they’d gone shopping for a new wardrobe. My Boy the stuffed cat was practically being suffocated, Five’s arm cut so deep into the plush out of anxiety.

“Five?” Klaus asked, voice hoarse from presumably screaming or crying in his sleep or whatever, “Buddy?”

“I - ” Five looked at the door and back to Klaus, “I heard you screaming. You were having a nightmare?”

“He was here before you screamed.” Ben corrected, “He came in to do the pulse thing.”

“You’re still crying.” Five pointed out hesitantly, and oh, that was why Five hadn’t just jumped out of the room. Protectiveness over his siblings trumped uncomfortable feelings conversations, which awww. That was nice to know.

Klaus swiped a wrist over his face, which was presumably super gross with snot and tears and yesterday’s makeup.

Clearly Five agreed, because the blue light that signified a jump lit up the room briefly and then popped up again as Five turned up to thrust a tissue box at his brother.

“That’s so cute,” Ben whispered as Klaus stared at the tissues as if confused why they were being offered to him, “Take a tissue idiot. Blow your nose and clean up a little.”

With actual instructions to follow, Klaus did as he was told, snorting a whole bunch of mucus into the tissue while ignored Five’s grossed out expression. Another tissue was set to dabbing at his eyes as he sniffled pathetically.

Five shuffled from foot to foot, dropping the tissue box on the bed within Klaus’s read. “Did you have an, uh - nightmare?”

Klaus laughed wetly, “Yeah. Yeah I sure did.”

An awkward pause as Five looked between the floor and Klaus’s face, “D’you want to talk about it, or something?”

Klaus’s mind flashed back to the terrible ghostly faces of his siblings contorted into ghastly screams as they chanted his name over and over again and shuddered. “Uh, I think I’ll pass on that, sorry dude.”

“Klaus!” Ben hissed, gesturing between them, “It could help you!”

But yeah, no, sorry Benny. This dream was being firmly locked in the ‘never think about ever again’ vault, and talking about it made it feel too real.

Klaus was almost lost in thought when something else was thrust into his face, making him reel back and have to refocus on his brother. It wasn’t a box of tissues this time. Instead, Five was holding out My Boy with both arms, looking somewhat uncertain. “If you want, you could borrow My Boy. He’s a good listener, and he gives good hugs.”

Klaus wondered absently if they should be concerned that Five was projecting attributes onto the stuffed animal the same way he’d talked about Dolores, but that thought was overshadowed by the part of him absolutely screaming at how adorable the offer was.

“I think,” Klaus said haltingly, “That I could use a hug right now for sure. If My Boy doesn’t mind, of course.”

Five looked at him like he was an idiot, “Wouldn’t have offered if he did. I can just - ”

Five gestured behind him to the door as Klaus accepted My Boy into his own arms, making Klaus panic and blurt out a _”Wait!”_ that had Five hesitating.

“I think,” Klaus said slowly, “That I would feel better if I had someone to uh, be in here with me? I just - I want to be sure you’re safe and sound and alive. If you don’t mind or uh, want to go back to your room? Actually you know what I’m sorry I just - ”

“Budge up.” Five cut his brother off.

Klaus blinked as that sank in, before beaming at his brother and scooching until there was a gap next to him, flipping back the covers in a silent invitation. Five cautiously climbed in, still looking rather unsure about the whole situation and so Klaus gently set My Boy as a buffer between them.

Just the warmth radiating off of another body actually did wonders to soothe Klaus’s lingering anxiety. As much as he absolutely adored Ben, his brother was still a ghost. Even if Klaus made him solid he was cold as the dead, and considering Klaus was trying to banish that particular cold he knew it wouldn’t help. 

God knows they’d already made an attempt and only accidentally made it worse.

Klaus startled as a hand found his under the covers and looked over at Five with wide eyes. A Five who wasn’t making eye contact, but tightened his grip on Klaus’s hand. “Go back to bed, Klaus.” His little brother whispered, “I’m alive. You’re alive. It’s okay.”

As if by magic, Klaus felt his eyelids grow heavy. He _was_ still tired seeing as he felt like he hadn’t rested at all. But he squeezed Five’s hand right back and spoke around a yawn, “Alright brat, but you have to sleep as well, deal?”

“Deal,” Five whispered back, and that was the last thing Klaus heard before he slipped back into blissful unconsciousness, his brother’s warm and very much alive hand right there.

He didn’t dream again, that night.

**Author's Note:**

> this is kind of sappy but you know what i'm allowed to be as sappy as i want
> 
> i literally only wrote this so i could make Five offer someone else My Boy because that image absolutely would not leave my head and i found it adorable, also protective brother five??? valid, thinking about writing a short thing about five's relationship with his siblings as an Actual Kid, like a 'five and one' type things except more like a 'seven and one' thing where it's 'seven times five was protective of his siblings and one time they were protective of him'
> 
> i have,, a lot of ideas  
> i should yell about them on my tua sideblog if i remember to lmao
> 
> so many idea, so little time


End file.
